In the previous issue of this series, we saw how King Mutara III Rudahigwa died under dubious circumstances. Since he had no son to succeed him, the opportunity fell on his half-brother Prince Ndahindurwa.

Kigeli V Ndahindurwa was born in 1936 to Yuhi V Musinga and Queen Mukashema in Kamembe (in today’s Rusizi District), where his father had been initially exiled.

Ndahindurwa was 4 years old when Musinga was exiled by the Belgian administration to Moba, DR Congo. After the death of his father, Ndahindurwa returned to Rwanda in 1944. He was baptized Jean-Baptiste in the Catholic church.

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He got his education at Groupe scolaire Astrida (today’s Groupe scolaire officiel de Butare in Huye District) in Rwanda and at the College Nyangezi in the modern-day DR Congo. After finishing school in 1956, he worked in local government in Rwanda until 1959.

King Mutara III Rudahigwa died unexpectedly on July 25, 1959. On July 28 the same year, it was announced that Prince Ndahindurwa would succeed him as King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa. One Kayumba, a guardian of esoteric code, proclaimed him as king on Mwima hill near Nyanza.

Ndahindurwa’s appointment was a surprise to the Belgian administration because they did not participate in his selection. They described it as a coup d'état, a view shared by the so-called Hutu elite then gaining political empowerment. Tradition reveals that Ndahindurwa himself was surprised.

The Belgian administration in Rwanda worked hard to bring change and have the monarchy abolished. The death of Mutara III Rudahingwa is across history attributed to the Belgian colonialists. He was opposed to divisions of any sort among Rwandans.

He adhered to their unity yet the colonial administration had already sown disunity. The so-called Hutu militancy was growing. This is the situation Kigeli V Ndahindurwa inherited.

In 1960, Ndahindurwa sought safety in the then independent nation of Congo (DR Congo today). In 1961, he went to Kinshasa to meet then Secretary General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold. Back at home, Dominique Mbonyumutwa led a coup d’état (the "coup d’état of Gitarama”) and took control of the state.

The Belgian government blessed it. The monarchy was formally overthrown on January 28, 1961. There was a referendum in the same year on the fate of a royal system in Rwanda.

The results showed that 80 percent of Rwandans had voted against the continuation of the monarchy. Ndahindurwa is said to have criticized the referendum as rigged. He had re-entered Rwanda. Indeed, it was a fait accompli. Belgian colonialists had political gain because their machinations had popular support though on the surface.

The government at the time put Ndahindurwa under house arrest. He was officially deported to Tanganyika (Tanzania today). He later relocated to Kampala, Uganda and then to Nairobi, Kenya. In 1992 he was granted asylum in the United States of America, where he lived until his death in 2016.

In 2007, Kigeli V Ndahindurwa expressed the wish to return to Rwanda on condition that Rwandans would accept him as a constitutional monarch. He was free to return, and Rwandans would decide. He did not return, and death would decide his fate.

Ndahindurwa simply swam in troubled waters. The power of the monarchy was long gone as explained by the deportation of his father and dubious circumstances under which his brother died. The alternative political force (Hutu militants) to suit their purpose had been fomented.

Kigeli V died at the age of eighty in October 2016 in exile in the USA. He adhered to the tradition forbidding kings to marry while out of the country. Three kings: Yuhi V Musinga, Mutara III Rudahingwa and Kigeli V Ndahindurwa died while out of the country.

King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa was laid to rest in Nyanza District, on Mwima hill in 2017.